Journeying in the Himalayas

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JOURNEYING IN THE HIMALAYAS On arrivel at the village of Thankot, 8 miles by road from Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, we were met by a car sent from the B.ritish Embassy. The car was a seven-seater complete with native driver, and after I4 miles of hot and disty walk on that day, we were very ple ssed to see it. There were four of us, plus four Sherpas, and about 300 lus. of personal baggage, and so by the time we set off at 8 p.m., the car was having a job to bear up under the burden. After being shaken over the wicked roads till our teeth rattled, we drew up at the impressive portals of the Embassy building and began to pile out. On the steps to meet us were the Ambassador, Mr. Summerhayes, and the first secretary, Colonel Proud. It was not till the next day when we were not so tired, that we could appreciate the hunour of the situation. Four New Zealnders and four Sherpas piling out, clad in shorts, shirts and sand-shoes, and exceedingly dusty and sweaty. Then dragging out a great pile of luggage to be whisked off by'the many servants flitting everywhere, and to crown everything, two diplomatic gentlemen, spotless in dinner jackets, welcoming them in the magnificent setting of the Embassy. A few days organising, and off we set with our 52 Nepalese coolies, four Sherpas, and our ton and a half of food and equipment. Everything we saw en route was new and intéresting, and. as the coolies travelled very slowly : ve had plenty of time to look around. The heat was oppressive, but nou as appressive as the smell of hot coolies."To borrow Maurie Bishop's phrase , "When walking behind a hot coolie, one wanders.if Everest is the highest thing on this earth !" For the first days march, we were able to buy char (tea) at: the teahouses in the different villages. This was served in a thick glass tumbler and was very refreshing, costing 2 annas or equivalent to 2d. After the first day, there were no tea-houses and good water was very scarce. Once or twiçe we succumbed to thirst and risked drinking water supplied by the villagers. This was usually handed to us in a brass container with a spout. The spout was not supposed to touch the mouth, and the water was straight siallowed with E. glug-glug noise. Until we got used to this method of drinking, we spilled water everywhere, much to the amusement of the locals. To try and hurry the coolies 3 we got all het up to no as it is impossible to get them to go any faster than they want to. avail, They know how far they are going to go each day, and it is an impossibility to make them go any further. Actually it suited us to travel in easy stages, as it broke us in gently, and by the time ve reached base, we were pretty fit. The day after we had established base camp in very pleasant surroundings in the Ganesh Himal at about 12,000 ft. 9 Maurie Bishop and I set off to see Vhet the possibilities were of climbing a peak just over 24,000 ft. We climbed about 3,000 ft. every step being an effort. I was sick a of times, and Maurie was being sick at régular intervals, and it was couple only grim determination that kept u3 going,

Actually we tried to do too much without being acclimatised and we paid for it the hard way. Later on the same route we climbed quite comfortably. After establishing three camps on this mighty peak, we were turned back by a huge unclimable rock band, with masses of ice hanging above, ready to sweep down on anyone foolhardy enough to get in the way. So much for our first effort. We had used up a lot of time to no avail,but had gained a lot of experience, which helped us considerably later, and so we regrouped to plan further action on another mi ghty giant. Athol Roberts.